Pizarra Municipal Museum

About Pizarra Municipal Museum

The Museo Municipal de Pizarra occupies the Cortijo Casablanca, a 19th-century farmhouse about 1 km outside Pizarra on the A-7054, in the Guadalhorce valley inland from Málaga. The site was a Moorish farmstead by the 15th century, and after the conquest of Málaga it was granted to Cristóbal de Mosquera. The town council bought the cortijo in 1985 and opened the museum in January 1996; it now shares the estate with a rural hotel and restaurant.

The collection began with Gino Hollander, an American painter from New York who settled in Pizarra in the late 1960s and gathered archaeological, ethnographic and artistic objects from Spain and North Africa. When he left, his collection passed to the town. It now runs to about 6,000 pieces.

The Gino Hollander room shows archaeology: an Acheulean handaxe from East Africa, said to be a gift from Louis Leakey, Bronze Age grave goods found locally, Iberian cremation urns, Roman medical instruments, glass and coins, and Islamic lamps. The Agustín Clavijo room recreates a traditional kitchen and bedroom among old furniture and Hollander's own paintings.

It is closed on Tuesdays. Spring, when the valley is green, is the best season, and an afternoon visit fits well after a morning on the Caminito del Rey upriver.

Pizarra Municipal Museum in pictures

What you’ll find

• Museum cafeFood & Drink purchaseBuy
• Museum exhibitionExhibition visitTicket
• Museum galleriesMuseum visitTicket

Nearby places to visit

Pizarra sits in the Guadalhorce valley, within reach of several golf clubs. Lauro Golf (12 km), at Alhaurín de la Torre, is the nearest place to play, with 27 holes named after bullfighters and bandits. For something more casual, Disc Golf Park Mijas (20 km), above Fuengirola, is the best-known disc golf course in Spain. Above Alhaurín el Grande, Alhaurín Golf Resort (16 km) is an 18-hole Severiano Ballesteros design climbing the slopes of the Sierra de Mijas, with its own clubhouse. Towards the city, Real Guadalhorce Club de Golf (16 km) lies on the outskirts of Málaga city.